
Glass 

Book 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



/ 



MASSACHUSETTS 



JUSTIN WINSOR. 






BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN, & CO. 

1882. 






Copyright, 1882, 
By Justin Winsor. 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



An Indian name originally applied to a small hillock, 
bordering on Boston harbor, and thence to a neighbor- 
ing tribe of Indians. It is the chief political division of 
New England, and one of the original thirteen States 
of the American Union. It lies for the most part 
between 40° and 42° 45' north latitude, and 70° 30' 
and 73° 30' west lono-itude. 



'to' 



Physical Desckiption. — Its area of about 7,800 
square miles, forms in the main a parallelogram, of 160 
miles east and west, 50 miles north and south, — with 
a projection at the southeast and a lesser one at the 
northeast, which gives a breadth of 90 miles at this 
part, where it borders upon the ocean, while the general 
irregularity of this coast-line gives a sea-frontage of 
about 250 miles. 'No large navigable river flows in any 
part, though the Connecticut River, bisecting the State 
during 50 miles of its course, and fed within it by sev- 
eral lateral streams, has been made navigable for small 
craft. The Housatonic, a lesser stream, flows parallel 
with the Connecticut, farther west. The two valleys 
are separated by the Hoosac Range (1,200 to 1,600 feet 
high) of the Berkshire Hills, a part of the Appalachian 
system, and a continuation of the Green Mountains of 
Vermont. These, with the Taconic Range on the 
western side of the Housatonic Valley, of which the 
highest peak is Greylock, or Saddleback (almost 3,500 



4 MASSACHUSETTS. 

feet), in the extreme northwest corner of the State, 
form the only considerable elevated land. Bordering 
on the Connecticnt, Monnt Tom, (1200 feet) and a few 
other hills form conspicuons landmarks. Wacluisett 
(2,018 feet), farther east, rises from a level country. 
The Blue Hills in Milton are the nearest ele^'ation to 
the coast, and are conspicuous to navigators approach- 
ing Boston. 

The Men-imac runs for 35 miles throuorh the north- 
east corner of the State, and affords valuable water- 
power at Lowell, Lawrence, and Haverhill. A few 
small streams, useful for mill purposes and irrigation, 
seek the ocean through Boston, Buzzard's, and Nar- 
ragansett Bays, running for the most part through a 
rolling conntry. The southeast parts of the State are 
level, — with a slightly elevated ridge (Manomet) south 
of Plymonth, — sandy in soil, with tracts of forest, 
largely white pine, and well watered by ponds. Be- 
tween Plymouth and Buzzard's Bay there is the most 
considerable region of untamed soil in the State, where 
deer are occasionally seen. 

South of Cohasset the shore is sandy, with a few 
isolated rocky ledges and bowlders. About Boston, and 
to the north of it, the shore is rocky and picturesque. 
Massachusetts Bay is a name now applied to the gulf 
of which the outer limits are Cape Cod and Cape Ann ; 
but in early days it was applied to the enclosed lesser 
bay on its western side, now called Boston Harbor, the 
finest roadstead on the coast. The extreme hook of 
the Cape Cod peninsula forms Provincetown Harbor, 
which is an excellent and capacious port of refuge for 
vessels approaching Boston. Salem Harbor is the most 
considerable other haven on the bay ; while on Buz- 
zard's Bay, New Bedford has a good harbor. 

The principal islands lie off the southern coast. The 
largest is Martha's Vineyard, 21 miles long, Avith an 
average breadth of five or six. It has in Holmes's Hole 
a spacious harbor, much frequented by wind-bound 
vessels seeking a passage round Cape Cod. The island 
is interesting as the scene of Mayhew's missionary 



MASSACHUSETTS. 5 

eiForts among the Indians, and it still harbors a rem- 
nant of a tribe. It has a population (4,300 in 1880) 
formerly dependent wholly upon the sea; and of late 
years it has become a summer resort of much popu- 
larity. Farther east, Nantucket, an island of triangular 
shape, 15 miles long and 11 wide at its eastern end, 
is likewise the home of a seafaring folk (population in 
1880, 3,727) who still retain in some degree primitive 
habits, though summer visitors are more and more 
affecting its life. Nantucket shoals, southeast of the 
island, is a laroe sandbank dano^erous to navio-ation. 

Flora and Fauna. — The original native trees and 
plants did not vary from what is common to New 
England and Northern New York. The presence of a 
dense population has driven some out, and brought in 
others, including some noxious weeds. The larger wild 
animals liave disa]:»peared except an occasional deei-; 
but small game still runs, and even within the municipal 
limits of Boston wild foxes are occasionally killed. No 
very large birds frequent the State, though a stray eagle 
is sometimes seen. Reptiles of a harmless kind are 
found, and three kinds of venomous snakes, — the latter 
even near Boston, particularly in the Blue Hills of 
Milton. Fish are abundant on the coast, and the cod 
is sometimes used as an emblem of the State, a figure 
of one hanging in the Repi-esentatives' Chamber at the 
State House. The artificial propagation and preserva- 
tion of salmon and other edible pond and river fish have 
been of late carried on successfully under the super- 
vision of a State Commission. 

Geology. — Professor N. S. Shaler of Harvard Uni- 
versity says : " Geologically as well as topographically, 
the State is divided into four districts, which extend 
farther than the State limits. In the southeastern part 
the whole of Cape Cod and Plymouth County is made 
up of rearranged glacial drift. Westward, from the 
shore region to the Connecticut, the rocks are of the 
Laurentian, Cambrian, and Carboniferous ages. The 



b MASSACHUSETTS. 

Connecticut River flows through a basin of trassic rocks, 
abounding in reptilian footprints. West of this basin, 
to the New York line, the surface is occupied by an 
extensive series of highly metamorphosed rocks, the 
age of which is doubtful ; but the series is certainly as 
old as the Silurian. The whole surface of the State 
was greatly affected by the List glacial period, as much 
so as Scotland or Sweden. 

"The economic resources are limited. An area of 
about 250 square miles in the southeastern part of the 
State shows carboniferous rocks, containing several 
coals. The deep-drift coating, the profoundly dis- 
located character of the beds, and the graphitic nature 
of the coals have made mining unsuccessful. Mines of 
silver-bearing lead have at times been worked in the 
northeastern shore districts, and in the Connecticut 
Valley, but without prorit. Emery is now successfully 
worked in the western district. There are also deposits 
of hematite iron ores all along the border of New York, 
which are considerably worked. There are numerous 
quarries of sienite in the eastern parts of the State, 
some of red sandstone in the Connecticut Valley, and 
of white marble in the western regions." 

ClUnate. — The climate is a trying one, showing 
great extremes (20° Fahrenheit below aiid 100° above), 
with about 42 inches of rainfall. The mean average 
temperature of Boston is 48° Fahrenheit. In the 
interior it is a trifle lower. Changes are often sudden, 
and the passage from winter to summer is by a rapid 
spring. The ocean tempers the climate considerably 
on the seaboard. Boston Harbor has been frozen over 
in the past, but steam-tugs plying constantly prevent 
now the occurrence of such obstruction. 

Agriculture. — The soil, except in some of the valleys, 
can hardly be called naturally fertile ; and sandy bar- 
rens are common in the southeastern parts. High culti- 
vation, however, has produced valuable market gardens 
about Boston and the larger towns ; and industry has 



MASSACHUSETTS. 7 

made the tilling of the earth sustaining in most other 
parts ; while the average sterility of the soil has doubt- 
less had a strong influence in developing a sturdy 
yeomanry in the rural regions. 

In 1875, 671,131 tons of hay were cut. On the sea- 
board, some extensive salt marshes yield a hay which 
is much prized. The corn crop diminished one half 
from 1855 to 1875. The State produced in 1880, 
1,797,593 bushels of Indian corn, 15,768 of wheat, 
645,159 of oats, 80,128 of barley, 213,716 of rye, 67,117 
of buckwheat. In 1879 the average cash value per 
acre of principal farm-crops was $26.71, which amount 
is exceeded only in Rhode Island. In the Connecticut 
Valley tobacco is growm, 3,358 acres being given to it 
in 1880, producing 5,369,436 pounds, which gives the 
State the thirteenth rank in the Union. In forty years 
the sheep have fallen from 384,614 to 65,123, in 1880 ; 
and in the same year there were 139,861 horses and 
174,859 cows. In 1880 there were 38,406 farms, of 
wdiich 35,266 were owned by occupants. Most of them 
were betw^een 20 and 500 acres each, nearly 12,000 
having over 100 acres. 

The Populatioi^ and its Conditio:^'. — The State is 
divided into eleven Congressional districts, each entitled 
to one representative in the Federal Congress, and rep- 
resenting from 151,000 to 181,000 inhabitants. It is 
divided also into 346 tow^ns, and these are grouped into 
14 counties, with an aggregate in 1880 of 1,783,085 
inhabitants, of which the native-born are 1,339,594, 
and the foreign-born, 443,491. This population was 
divided into 379,710 families, living in 281,188 dwel- 
lings, with nearly 222 j^ersons to the square mile, and 
less than an average of three acres to each person. 
Nearly every fifth person is a voter. The total vote in 
the Presidential campaign of 1880 was 282,512. The 
number of persons born within Massachusetts, and 
living in 1880 out of the State, but within the limits 
of the United States, was 1,356,295. The population 
at past censuses has been 



8 MASSACHUSETTS. 

1790 378,787 1840 737,699 

1800 422,845 1850 994,514 

1810 472,040 1860 1,231,066 

1820 523,159 1870 1,457,351 

1830 610,408 1880 1,783,085 

There were, in 1880, 31 cities and towns of over 10,000 
inhabitants. 

Births and Deaths. — It is calculated that to every 
1000 inhabitants the births are more than 23, the mar- 
riages about 8, the deaths 18^-, the excess of births over 
deaths being nearly 5. In 1880, 44,217 were born, and 
15,538 couples were married, while 35,292 persons died, 
at an average age of 32 years. Taking persons over 
20 years of age, the deaths in 37i\ years were 187,264, 
with an average age of 51.42. During sixteen years 
the average age at death of all conditions was 30.18 
years. In 20 years the birth-rate to 1,000 persons was 
26.2 ; the death-rate 19.7. 

Health. — A Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity 
supervises the public hygiene, and the institutions for 
the insane and paupers. By their reports of 1880 it 
appears that the prominent causes of death are for the 
ages: from birth to five, — diarrhcea, diphtheria, pneu- 
monia, scarlet-fever, and obscure diseases of the brain 
and intestines; from five to ten, — infectious diseases 
and obscure diseases of childhood ; from ten to fifteen, 
— diphtheria, consumption, and typhoid fever ; from 
fifteen to twenty, — consumption and typhoid fever; 
from thirty upward, — pneumonia and heart-disease, 
with cancer from forty to sixty. Paralysis and apoplexy 
gain after forty, and after seventy the greatest portion 
die of old age. The twelve principal causes of fatality 
in all ages are placed in this order : consumption, pneu- 
monia, diphtheria, heart-disease, old age, cholera-in- 
fantum, paralysis, cancer, scarlet-fever, cephalitis, 
bronchitis, and apoplexy ; and by these disorders sixty 
per cent of all deaths occur. Intermittent fever was 
known in the earlier history of the State, but in this 



MASSACHUSETTS. 9 

century, before 1877, was practically unknown, except 
in the form of an occasional epidemic, but since that 
date has made rapid progress in the western parts. 

Paupers. — Other tables of the same board show 
that in July, 1880, 19,318 paupers were receiving, wholly 
or in part, local or State support ; and the same was 
true of about 3,000 insane persons. The average num- 
ber of inmates of these charitable establishments (State, 
city, and town) in 1880 was 7,467 persons. At public 
and private insane asylums there were 4,398 cases 
within the year. 

Immigration. — The immigrants from Europe during 
the year ending Sept. 30, 1880, were 33,636 in number, 
of which one third were Irish, and the males in com- 
parison with the females were as 18 to 15. A large 
part of this influx merely passed through the State to 
the West. 

Business and Finance. Commerce and Manufac- 
tures. — Up to 1830 the commerce of the State found 
various outlets beside Boston ; but since then this city 
has more and more absorbed the whole foreign trade. 
The whaling business still remained to other ports, and 
at one time gave occupation to a thousand ships. The 
introduction of petroleum gradually diminished this 
resource of the lesser ports. 

The packing of pork and beef was formerly cen- 
tred in Boston ; but while now a similar business ten- 
fold as large is done, it has been greatly exceeded in 
the West. For many years Massachusetts controlled 
a vast lumber trade, drawing upon the forests of Maine, 
but the growth of the West has changed the old chan- 
nels of trade, and Boston carpenters now make large 
use of Western lumber. The American trade with 
China and India was begun in Salem, and was next 
controlled in Boston, till this also was lost some years 
ago to New York. In commercial relations the chief 
port of Massachusetts attained its highest influence 



10 MASSACHUSETTS. 

about forty years ngo, when it wns selected ns the Amer- 
ican terminus of the first steamship line (Cunard) con- 
necting England with the United States, but Boston 
lost the commercial prestige, then won, by the ftdlure 
of the State to develop railway communication with 
the West, so as to equal the development eftected by 
other cities. It was between 1840 and 1850 that the 
cotton manufactures of Massachusetts began to assume 
large proportions; and about the same time the mnnu- 
facture of boots and shoes centred here, find hns ever 
since mnintnined its prominence, much more than one 
half of all boots and shoes manufactured in the country 
being the product of this State. Again, ice and granite 
became important articles of export; and Quincy gran- 
ite, from 1849, was sent to various Southern ports, liav- 
ing an importance as a building-stone, which it has 
hardly lost now, with the later multiplication of varie- 
ties of such stones. Medford ships began to be famed 
shortly after the beginning of the century, and by 1845 
that town employed one quarter of all the shipwrights 
in the State. From 1840 to 1860 Massachusetts-built 
ships competed successfully for the carrying trade ot 
the world. Before 1840 five hundred tons made a 
large ship, but after the discovery of gold in California 
the size of ships increased rapidly, and the lines of their 
models were more and more adapted to speed. The 
limit of size was reached in an immense clipper of 4555 
tons, and the greatest speed attained in a })assage from 
San Francisco to Boston in seventy-five days, and from 
San Francisco to Cork in ninety-three days. The 
development of steam navigation for the cariying of 
large cargoes has driven this fleet from the sea. Hardly 
eighteen per cent of the exports and imports through 
Massachusetts is now carried in Ameiican bottoms. 
The grain elevators, which pour corn in bulk into ships 
at Boston to-day for P^uropean markets, are the result of 
the first attempt at such transportation, made in 1843, 
when citizens of Massachusetts sent corn to starving 
Ireland. 

Coastwise steam lines, supported by Massachusetts 



MASSACHUSETTS. 11 

CMpital, had run to Philadelphia and Baltimore for 
some years before the Civil War broke up other less 
successful ones, wliich had connected ports farther 
south. When the war and steam navigation put an 
end to the supremacy of Massachusetts wooden ships, 
much of the capital which had been employed in navi- 
gation was turned into developing railroad ficilities, 
and coastwise steam lines. An effort to establish a 
European steam line fjiiled. In 1872 the great fire in 
Boston, destroying $72,000,000 worth of property, made 
large drains upon the capital of the State, and several 
years of depression in business followed, to be suc- 
ceeded by an era of business prosperity still continuing. 
The imports of Boston — practically of Massachusetts — 
for 1880 were $(38,649,664; the exports, 169,178,764. 
In 1880, 322 steamships sailed from Boston for Euro- 
pean ports. In 1880, 180 steam craft were owned in 
Massachusetts, with a capacity of 48,917 tons. Massa- 
chusetts had in 1880 a fleet of 376 sail of cod-fishing 
vessels, manned by 4185 men, — three quarters of all 
belonging to one port, Gloucester. In mackerel catch- 
ing 239 vessels are employed. In 1882, 20,117 persons 
were actively engaged in the fisheries, and it was esti- 
mated til at 100,000 peo])le depended on them for sup- 
port. The capital invested is $14,334,450, and the 
product is worth $8,141,750. The total tonnage of the 
State in 1881 was 430,182, which gave the State rank 
after New York and Maine. In 1880, of 39,921 busi- 
ness houses, 329 failed, with liabilities at $3,336,954. 

A general act of 1870, with supplements of later 
years, allows of the incorporation of companies under 
it, and in 1880 such corporations, so organized, had 
$30,150,255 capital, — and this was in some part money 
disengaged of late years from navigation and its at- 
tendant branches of trade. 

While the cai)ital of the State may not have devel- 
oped even yet, as it might, all that is possible for a sys- 
tem of railway communication with the West, it has 
fostered, and made possible, large facilities in the States 
of the Mississippi Valley and beyond, which may in 



12 MASSACHUSETTS. 

time so enlarge the terminal facilities of the State's 
chief port as to make it a more important outlet for 
expoi't of the produce of the West, and give it a dis- 
tinction justly its due from its geographical position. 

In the working of ores the State is not prominent. 
Five furnaces in 1880 yielded 19,000 tons of pig iron. 
In wool, the Boston market is the largest in the coun- 
try. The State has far more spindles (4,465,290) in 
cotton manufacture than any other State, and not much 
short of half the number in the whole United States 
(10,921,147). She employs in this business 62,794 
hands, or about one third of the entire force so em- 
ployed in the United States. 

Massachusetts is the only State in the East, manufac- 
turing textile fabrics, where ten hours is the operative's 
day; and it is reported by the State Bureau of Sta- 
tistics that, equal grades being considered, as much is 
produced under her system, per man, loom, or spindle, 
as in States where eleven hours or more is the rule ; 
and that the Massachusetts operative earns as much or 
more per day. Canadian French now constitute a 
considerable proportion of the factory hands. In cer- 
tain departments of labor Chinese are beginning to find 
employment. 

Formerly farmer's daughters of native stock were 
much employed in factories. Operatives of foreign 
birth or parentage have taken in great part their 
places ; and those of native stock have sought other 
occupations, — largely in the manufacturing of small 
wares in the cities, and particularly in departments of 
trade where skilled labor is essential. Household 
service is seldom now done, as it formerly was, by 
women of native stock; persons of Irish, Swedish, and 
Scottish origin, with many from Nova Scotia and New 
Brunswick, taking their places. 

Railways. — The report of the Railroad Commis- 
sioners for 1880 shows : 29 street railways ; capital, 
$6,144,000 ; assets, $10,173,079.84 ; total income, 
$3,711,378.18; expenses, $3,003,024.87 ; length of roads, 



MASSACHUSETTS. 13 

240 miles ; miles run, 12,516,363 ; passengers carried, 
68,631,842. 

Of steam railways there were 3,044 miles of single 
track, of which 1,893 were main lines; and 27,057 
Massachusetts stockholders held 178,806,559.95 capital 
stock of the total of $118,738,871.58; and 21,615 per- 
sons were employed. The total income of these roads 
was 135,140,374.77; and the dividends declared were 
$5,987,718.64. Total passengers carried 45,151,152; 
freight carried, 17,221,567 tons. There were to pas- 
sengers in 1880, 9 fital and 15 other accidents; and 
157 other persons were injured on the roads. 

The Hoosac Tunnel — after that of Mont Cenis the 
longest in the world, 5J miles in length — pierces the 
Hoosac Mountain in the northwest corner of the State, 
and opens a second direct railway communication with 
Western lines, that of the Boston and Albany having 
been long without a rival. It cost $9,000,000, the 
State lending its credit, and was built between 1855 
and 1874. 

Savings Banks, etc. — In 1880 the number of open ac- 
counts was 706,395; amount of deposits, $218,047,922.37 
(onlv exceeded in New York) ; amount of earnings, 
$11,894,710.60; ordinary dividends, $7,957,887.09; 
annual expenses, $581,274.35 ; number of outstanding 
loans (none exceeding $3,000) 32,320, aggregating 
$34,203,951.81. The number of banks in 1880 was 
164, against 22 in 1834. The number of co-operative 
Saving Fund and Loan Associations was 16, with 
$372,462.31 assets. 

National Banks. — The report of the Comptroller of 
the Currency for 1880 says, "The thirteen States hav- 
ing the largest capital [in national banks] are Massa- 
chusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, etc. ... in the 
order named." In 1879 the capital of National banks 
in Massachusetts was $94,748,172, that of New York 
being $85,706,942. In 1881 there were 242 such banks, 
with $95,605,000 capital, and $525,827 dividends, and 



14 MASSACHUSETTS. 

in 1880 they issued $3,693,885 in circulating bills,— 
Pennsylvania with $2,036,890 coming next. 

A report to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 
for the six months ending May 31, 1880, shows Massa- 
chusetts to have 218 banking and trust companies, 
private bankers, and savings banks (notr organized 
under the national law), with an aggregate capital 
of $5,638,099 ; average deposits to the amount of 
$208,822,039. These banks also held investments in 
United States bonds, amounting to $22,909,377. 

Public Deht^ etc. — The public debt of the State, 
Jan. 1, 1881, was $32,799,464 ; the sinking funds, 
$13,050,192.20; the trust funds, $2,890,650.9^2. The 
total taxable value was 81,927,855,430.09. The taxes 
produced $4,950,000. The rate of State taxation is 
much smaller than that of any other State. The State 
receipts were on account of revenue $7,881,198; on 
account of funds, $5,616,418, or $13,497,616 in all. 

The Boston Stock Exchange stands next to New 
York in the extent of the securities in which it deals. 

Citizens of Massachusetts (16,855 in number) hold 
$45,138,750 of the United States bonds, and the pro- 
portion of holders (23.04 per cent) to the population 
of the State is in excess of that of all other States, and 
New York, which is next, shows 20.24 per cent. 

In 1881 the State contributed $2,699,681 as internal 
revenue to the Federal treasury, being a twelfth rank 
among the States and Territories. 

Social Statistics. Intellectual Life. — No statement 
of the influence which Massachusetts has exerted upon 
the American people, through intellectual activity and 
even through vagary, is complete without an enumera- 
tion of the names which, to Americans at least, are 
the signs of this influence and activity. In science: 
John Winthrop, the most eminent of Colonial scientists ; 
Benjamin Thompson (Count Rumford) ; Nathaniel 
Bovvditch, the translator of La Place ; Benjamin Peirce ; 
and Morse the electrician ; not to include an adopted 



MASSACHUSETTS. 15 

citizen in Louis Agassiz. In history: Winthrop and 
Bradford laid the foundations of her story in the very 
beginning; but the best example of the Colonial period 
is Thomas Hutcluuson, and in, our day, Bancroft, 
Sparks, Palfi-ey, Prescott, Motley, and Pnrkman. In 
poetry, the pioneer of the modern spirit in American 
verse was Richard Henry Dana ; and "later came Bryant, 
Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, and Holmes. In philoso- 
phy, and the science of Kving, Jonatiian Edwards, 
Franklin, Channing, Emerson, and Theodore Parker. 
In oratory, James 'Otis, Fisher Ames, Josiah Quincy, 
Jr., Webster, Choate, Everett, Sumner, Winthrop, and 
Wendell Phillips. In fiction, Hawthorne and Mrs. 
Stowe, not to embrace the living and younger names 
of Howells and Aldrich. In law, Story, Parsons, and 
Shaw. In polite scholarship, Ticknor and Hillard. 
In art, Copley, Gilbert Stuart, Washington Allston, 
William M. Hunt, Horatio Greenough, W. W. Story, 
and Thomas Ball. What in America was called the 
Transcendental Movement — which sprung out of Ger- 
man affiliations, and swept in its train many scholarly 
persons, and resulted in the well-known community of 
Brook Farm, under the leadership of the late Dr. George 
Ripley — was a growth of Massachusetts, and in passing 
away it left, instead of traces of an organization, a sen- 
timent and an aspiration for what was called a higher 
thinking, which gave Emerson his friendly sympa- 
thizers. ^ It might go withont saying that a commu- 
nity which fostered such persons and feelings was not 
at all times free from riotous and unbalanced ideas, 
which could inaugurate too many departures from the 
common course of wisdom. 

Uducatto7i. — or the 307,321 children, between five 
and fifteen, in Massachusetts, 281,757 attend the pub- 
lic schools, in addition to 25,020 over fifteen, and 
1,833 under five; while 27,370 of all ages attend 
charitable, reformatory, and piivate schools. The 
public schools are 5570 in number ; the academies and 
piivate schools, 423. The cost of maintaining the pub- 



16 MASSACHUSETTS. 

lie schools is $5,156,731 per annum. This expenditure 
is exceeded only in the States of New York, Illinois, 
Pennsylvanin, and Ohio. It is a little more in Iowa. 
A Board of Education (the governor, lieutenant-gov- 
ernor, and eight others) have the general charge, and 
their secretaiy acts as superintendent of the State 
system in conjunction with local superintendents and 
committees. Women are eligible to these positions ; 
and among the teachers of the public schools they are 
largely in excess, — 7,462 women and 1,133 men; and 
of the combined number (8,595) 2,228 had attended 
normal schools. The male teachers on an average 
receive $67.54 per month ; the women, $30.59. The 
system includes common, high, and normal schools, 
with one normal art-school, and various evening, in- 
dustrial, and truant schools. No discrimination is 
made as to race, color, or religious views. The aver- 
age attendance is 89 per cent of the membership. 
Two fifths of one per cent of the native population 
are illiterate. The State normal schools, where the 
teachers are trained, are five in number, besides the 
art-school. The attendance upon them was 841 in 
1880. Some of the cities and towns maintain their 
own training-schools. Meetings of teachers are held 
once a month or oftener in various parts of the State, 
for comparison of views and experience. 

The high schools are 215 in number, with 18,758 
pupils and 494 teachers; and other secondary instruc- 
tion is given in the business colleges, private academic 
schools, and the more distinctive preparatory schools, 
which send their graduates to the colleges. Of these 
last the most important is Harvard College, the chief 
department of what is known as Harvard University, 
which includes in addition various professional schools, 
and other colleges of special studies. This university 
in 1882 had 1,382 students, with a staff of 200 officers 
and instructors ; and of these students 823 belong to 
the academic department (Harvard College), where 
they are allowed wide latitude in the choice of the 
studies pursued. The classes of undergraduates are 



MASSACHUSETTS. 17 

recruited largely from the State ; but the establisli- 
ment of examhiations for admission in distant cities, 
like Philadel[)hia, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and San Fran- 
cisco, is increasing the proportion who come from other 
parts of the country. Harvard University is mainly 
at Cambridge, three miles from Boston, but some of 
the departments are in the latter city. 

In the extreme west of the State is Williams Col- 
lege, which in 1880 had 227 students ; and in the 
Connecticut Valley is Amherst College, with 339 stu- 
dents. Boston University, in its several departments, 
had 510 students in 1880 ; and Tufts College, a few 
miles from Boston, an institution supported by the 
Universalist sect, had 63 students. Two Roman 
Catholic colleges are maintained : Boston College 
with 80 students, and College of the Holy Cross, at 
Worcester, of about the same size. Of the various 
institutions for the instruction of women, two rank 
with the colleges for men : Smith College at North- 
ampton, and Wellesley College, not far from Boston. 
The income of colleoje funds ($425,958) is only ex- 
ceeded in New York ^($710,164). 

For agricultural students there are two schools: 
one supported by the State at Amherst, and the 
Bussey Institution, a department of Harvard Univer- 
sity. In technological science there is special instruc- 
tion given in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
(Boston), the Lawrence Scientific School (of Harvard 
University), the Free Institute of Industrial Science 
(Worcester), and the School of All Sciences (Boston 
University). In theology, nearly 300 students, in 1880 
were divided among the schools at Andover (Congre- 
gational), at Boston (in connection with the University, 
Methodist), at Cambridge (Harvard University, non- 
sectarian, and an independent Episcopal School), at 
Somerville (Tufts College, Universalist), at Newton 
(Baptist), and at Waltham (New Church). In law 
there are schools in connection with both Boston and 
Harvard Universities ; and the same is true of medicine, 
that of the former being of homoeopathic tendency. 



18 MASSACHUSETTS. 

The State is also supplied with special schools of 
varions other sorts, particularly those for deaf mutes, 
the blind, and the feeble-minded, in which noteworthy 
methods had been employed with success. 

In 1880 the United States Patent Office issued letters 
to an average of one inhabitant of the State in eveiy 
1,333, a degree of inventive energy only exceeded in 
Connecticut, where the pi'oportion is one in 1,(320. 

The total receipts of the Post Office in 1880 were 
$2,484,692, an amount only exceeded by New York, 
Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, w hile the State stands 
seventh in population. 

The Press. — The earliest printing in the British 
Colonies was done at Cambridge in this State, where, 
in 1640, the first book was printed, which is known as 
the " Bay Psalm-book," being a version of the Psalms 
for singing, made in the colony. Cambridge still re- 
tains its pre-eminence in the University and Riverside 
presses. A printing-house was not set up in Boston 
till 1674. In the early part of this century book print- 
ing was done at various country presses ; but at i)resent 
it is all done in Boston, which, with New York and 
Philadelphia, is now a principal centre of the American 
book trade. 

A single number of two separate ventures to scatter 
pubhc intelligence had appeared in Boston in 1689 
and 3 690 ; but the first regular newspaper was not 
established till 1704, when Uie "Boston Newsletter" 
became the pioneer of the American newspaper press. 
There is at present no newspaper of much influence 
printed outside of Boston, except the " Springfield 
Republican," and even the Boston newspapers are 
generally held to be behind those of New York and 
Cliicago in enterprise and power. 

In 1880 there were 35 daily newspapers, with 33 
others, having an annual circulation — for dailies of 
86,304,851 ; for weekhes, etc., of 10,204,537 ; and 392 
periodicals of all kinds issued. 



MASSACHUSETTS. 19 

Libraries. — The State is tlie most richly provided 
with public collections of books (apart from school 
libraries) of any in the Union. In the number of vol- 
umes the Public Library of Boston (404,201 in 1882) 
probably stands at the head of all in the country, 
though the Library of Congress closely follows. Each 
of these libraries fills its enumeration, however, with 
large numbers of duplicates, — that at Washington from 
those received under the copyright act, and that of Boston 
from the extensive provision of extra copies for its ten 
popular departments, largely coimterparts of each other. 
It is accordingly probable that the library of Harvard 
University (nearly 300,000 volumes), which has but few 
duplicates, outranks all others in the country in the 
count of titles, as it is much the largest of all American 
academic collections. Of the eight largest libraries in 
the United States, three are in Massachusetts, the 
Boston Athenaeum, one of the best of the class of pro- 
prietary libraries, being counted with the two already 
named. The State lectin the founding of city and town 
libraries, supported by public taxes, thirty years ago, and 
has instituted more of them than exist in all the other 
States combined. After the one at Boston, that at 
Worcester is the best known. Collections of fiiir pro- 
portions are attached to the lesser colleges, Amherst, 
Williams, and Wellesley. The special historical libra- 
ries of the American Antiquarian Society at Worcester, 
the IMassachusetts Historical Society, the New Eng- 
land Historic Genealogical Society, and Congregational 
Library, at Boston, added to the departments of the 
Harvard and Boston libraries, make Massachusetts 
exceedingly rich in books upon American history. 
No one of her libraries has the resources of the 
rarest of early Americana which will be found in the 
private collection of the late John Carter-Brown at 
Providence, and in the Lenox Library at New York; 
but with access to such private collections as that of 
Charles Deane at Cambridge, the student of American 
history is probably at less disadvantage in Massachu- 
setts than in any other libi'aiy centre in the States, 



20 MASSACHUSETTS. 

though the value of the Peter Force collection in the 
Library of Congress is not to be forgotten. In science, 
sections of the Boston Public Library and the Harvard 
Library are of the most importance, though in physics 
and natural history the collections of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences (Boston) and of the 
Boston Society of Natural History may well supple- 
ment them. In private libraries the State may claim 
numbers, rather than individual richness, and is prob- 
ably surpassed by New York in signal collections. 
The State itself, in the State House, has a collection 
of considerable value, confined for the most part to 
law, public documents, and American history. 

Crime. — A board of prison commissioners (three 
men and two w^omen) report in 1880, 3.821 persons in 
confinement, 2,070 in county prisons, and 1,751 in other 
institutions. In 1879 there were 16,211 sentences for 
drunkenness ; and during the last 20 years 60 per cent 
of all sentences for crime were traceable to liquor, or 
340,814, in that time, out of 578,458 sentences. Of this 
aggregate, 332,495 were against chastity, morality, and 
decency; 55,327 against property ; and 1,656 (felonious) 
and 81,440 (not felonious) against persons. Seventy- 
five per cent of criminals are between the ages of 
eighteen and forty-five. 

Fires and Lisurance. — The fires in 1880 were 1,722 
in number (of which 596 were total), causing an aggre- 
gate loss of $4,454,221, of which 71 per cent w^ns paid 
by insurance companies. The causes were in 383 cases 
reported unknown ; and in 294, incendiary. 

In life-insurance, six Massachusetts companies have 
gross assets of $32,939,505, and gross liabilities of 
% 27,546,554 ; while companies organized without the 
State, and doing business within it, have $369,996,657 
assets and $328,105,152 liabilities. 

Government, Militia, etc. — The State, under the 
Federal Constitution, sends two senators to the Con- 



MASSACHUSETTS. 21 

gress of the United States, and the most eminent men 
who have thus represented the Commonwealth have 
been John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, Riifus 
Choate, Edward Everett, and Charles Sumner. The 
State is also entitled to eleven members of the National 
House of Representatives. 

The Executive Department of the State Government 
is confided to a governor, who is aided by a lieuten- 
ant-governor, and eight others, representing so many 
divisions of the State, who, with the governor and lieu- 
tenant-governor constitute the executive council. They 
are chosen yearly. There are also a secretary of the 
Commonwealth, a treasurei*, and auditor. An attorney- 
general is the State's law officer. The governor, as 
commander-in-chief of the State militia, has a military 
staff. 

The judges are all appointed by the governor, with 
the advice and consent of his council, and hold office 
during good behavior. The highest court is the 
supreme judicial court, which has a chief justice and 
six associate justices. Among the eminent jurists who 
have been at the head of this court are John Adams, 
Theophilus Parsons, and Lemuel Shaw. A superior 
court, with a chief justice and ten associate justices, 
was established in 1859. Each county has its own 
courts of probate and insolvency. Various larger cities 
and towns have police and municipal courts ; while 
groups of towns have district courts. 

The legislative departments are the Senate, of 40 
members, chosen by senatorial districts ; and a House 
of Representatives, of 240 members, chosen by districts 
within the counties. These two bodies form the General 
Court so-called, which is chosen yearly, and it elects its 
own officers. It meets in the State House, at Boston, 
a structure prominently placed on the highest point of 
land in that city, its dome serving as an apex to the 
elevation of its sky line. It was built in 1795-97, but 
has been enlarged since. Before it are statues of 
Daniel Webster, by Powers, and Horace Mann, by Miss 
Stebbins, and within are Chantry's toga-draped statue 



22 MASSACHUSETTS. 

of Washington (placed there in 1828), and Thomas 
Ball's statue of John A. Andrew, — the latter the most 
eminent of tlie recent governors, whose term of service 
covered the period of the Civil War (1861-65), and who 
acquired the sobriquet of the "great war governor." 

Of the incumbents of tlie twelve principal ottices of 
the Federal Government, this State has furnished, since 
the organization under the Constitution, 34. — a number 
exceeded by Virginia (40), Pennsylvania (36), and New 
York (35). 

Tlie enrolled militia (every able bodied male between 
18 and 45 years of age) in 1880 were 238,762 in num- 
ber ; the active volunteer militia numbering 334 officers 
and 4,436 enlisted men, organized in two brigades 
beside two unattached corps of cadets, one the gov- 
ernor's bodyguard. 

HisTDRY. — It is possible that the coasts of Massachu- 
setts were visited by the Northmen, and by the earliest 
navigators who followed Cabot, but the evidence is that 
of conjecture only. Gosnold left tlie earliest trace of 
English acquaintance on its shores, when he discovered 
and named Cape Cod in 1602. Pring and Champlain 
later tracked them, but the map of Champlain is hardly 
recognizable. The Urst sufficient explorations for car- 
tographical record were made by John Smith in 1614, 
and Ids map was long the basis — particularly in its 
nomenclature — of later maps. Permanency of occupa- 
tion, however, dates from the voyage of the Mayflower, 
which brought about a hundred n\en, women, and chil- 
dren, who had mostly belonged to an English sect of 
Separatists, originating in Yorkshire, but who had 
passed a period of exile for religion's sake in Holland, 
in the early winter of 1620 they made the coast, of 
Cape Cod : they had intended to make their landfall 
farther south, within the jurisdiction of the Virginia 
Company, which had granted them a patent ; but stress 
of weather prevented their doing so. Fiiuling tliem- 
selves without warrant in a region beyond their patent, 
they drew up and signed, before landing, a compact of 



MASSACHUSETTS. 23 

government, wliicli is accounted the earliest written 
constitution in history. After some exploration of the 
coast they made a permanent landing, Dec. 'Jl, 1620 
(new style), at Plymouth, a harbor which had already 
been so named on Smith's map in 1616. A subsequent 
patent from the Council for New England, upon whose 
territory they were, confirmed to them a tract of land 
which at present corresponds to the southeast section 
of the State. They maintained their existence as a 
colony, though never having a charter direct from the 
Crown, till 1691, when, under what is termed the Pro- 
vincial Cliarter, Plymouth Colony was annexed to 
Massachusetts. 

The Massachusetts Company had been formed in 
England in 1628 for the purj^ose of promoting settle- 
ments in New England. There had been various 
minor expeditions, during the few years since Smith 
was on the coast, before this company, in the Puritan 
interests, had sent over, in 1628, John Endicott, with a 
party, to what is now Salem. In 1630, the government 
of the company, Avith questionable right, transfei-red 
itself to their territory, and under the lead of John 
Winthrop laid the foundations anew of the Massachu- 
setts Colony, when they first settled Boston in the 
autumn of that year. Wintliro)) remained the gov- 
ernor of the colony, with some interruptions, till his 
death in 1649, his first rejection coming from a ]^arty 
of theological revolt which chose Henry Vane, later 
Sir Henry Vane, to the office. Tlie early history was 
rendered unquiet at times by wars with the Indians, 
the chief of which were the Pequot War in 1637, and 
Phili])'s War in 1675-76; and tor better combining 
against these enemies, Massachusetts, with Connecticut, 
New Haven, and New Plymouth, formed a confederacy 
in 1643, considered the prototype of the larger union of 
the colonies which conducted the War of the Revolu- 
tion (1775-82). The struggle with the Crown, which 
ended in independence, began at the fouiulation of the 
colony, with assumptions of power under the charter, 
— which the colonial government was always trying to 



24 MASSACHUSETTS. 

maintnin, and the Crown was as assiduously endeavoring 
to counteract. Theological variances and differences of 
political views led to some emigration of the early 
colonists to Rhode Island. To secure "more room," 
led others to go to Connecticut, where they established 
a bulwark against the Dutch of New York. An inroad 
of the Quakers disturbed their peace for several years, 
and led to violent laws against all such aggressive dis- 
sentients. After more than a half-century of struggle, 
the Crown finally annulled the charter of the colony, 
in 1685, and after a brief temporary sway of Joseph 
Dudley, a native of the colony, as president of a pro- 
visional council, Sir Edmund Andros was sent over with 
a commission to unite New York and New England 
under his rule. His government was espoused by a 
small church party, but was intensely unpopular with 
the bulk of the people ; and, before news arrived of the 
landing of William of Orange in England, the citizens 
of Boston rose in revolution (1689), deposed Andros, 
imprisoned him, and re-established their old colonial 
form of govermnent. Then came a struggle, carried 
on in England by Increase Mather as agent of the col- 
ony, to secure such a form of government, under a new 
charter, as would preserve as many as possible of their 
old liberties. Plymouth Colony, acting through its 
agent in London, endeavored to secure a separate exis- 
tence by royal charter, but acce])ted finally union 
with Massachusetts, when association with New York 
became the alternative. The Province of Maine was 
also united in the new provincial charter of 1691, 
and Sir William Phips came over wdth it, commis- 
sioned the first royal governor. He was a native of 
Maine, a rough sailor, who had got his knighthood 
because he had raised treasure from a Spanish wreck 
in the West Indies. He was a parishioner of Mather 
in Boston, and, it was thought, received the appoint- 
ment through Mather's influence. 

Throughout the continuance of the government 
under the provincial charter, there was a constant 
struggle between the pi-erogative party, headed by the 



MASSACHUSETTS. 25 

royal governor, and the popular party, who cherished 
recollections of their practical independence under the 
colonial charter, and who were nursing the sentiments 
which finally took the form of resistance in 1775. The 
popular majority kept up the feeling of hostility to the 
royal authority, in recurrent combats in the legislative 
assembly over the salary to be voted to the governor. 
These antagonisms were from time to time forgotten 
in the wars with the French and Indians, and early in 
Phips's administration by the unfortunate austerities of 
the Salem Witchcraft delusion. During the Earl of 
Bellomont's administration, New York was again united 
with Massachusetts, under the same executive. The 
scenes of the recurrent wars were mostly distant from 
Massachusetts proper, either in Maine or on Canadian 
or Acadian territory, although some savage inroads 
of the Indians were now and then made on the 
exposed frontier towns, as, for instance, upon Deer- 
field, in 1704, and upon Haverhill, in 1708. Phips, 
who had succeeded in an attack on Port Royal, had 
ignominiously failed when he led the Massachusetts 
fieet against Quebec in 1690. The later expedition of 
1711 was no less a fliilure. The most noteworthy 
administration was that of William Shirley (1741-49 
and 1753-56), who at one time was the commanding 
officer of the British forces in North America. lie 
made a brilliant success of the expedition against 
Louisburg in 1745, William Pepperell, a Maine officer 
being in immediate command. Shirley with Massachu- 
setts troops also took part in the Oswego expedition 
of 1755 ; and Massachusetts proposed, and lent the 
chief assistance in, the expedition to Nova Scotia in 
1755, which ended in the removal of the Acadians. 
Her officers and troops played an important part in 
the Crown Point and second Louisburg expedition 
(1758). 

The beginning of the active opposition to the Crown 
may be placed in the resistance, led by James Otis, to 
the issuing of writs to compel citizens to assist the 
revenue officers ; followed later by the outburst of 



26 MASSACHUSETTS. 

feeling at the imposition of the Stamp Act, when Mas- 
sachusetts took the lead in confronting the royal power. 
The governors put in office at this time by the Crown 
were not of conciliatory temperaments, and the meas- 
ures instituted in Parliament served to increase bitter- 
ness of feeling. Royal troops sent to Boston irritated 
the populace, who were highly excited at the time, when 
an outbreak, known as the Boston Massacre, occurred 
in 1770, and a tile of the garrison troops, in self-de- 
fence, shot down a few citizens among the crowd which 
assailed them. The merchants combined to prevent 
the importation of goods which by law would yield 
the Crown a revenue ; and the Patriots, as the anti- 
prerogative party called themselves, opened commu- 
nication with those of the other colonies through 
" committees of correspondence," a method of the ut- 
most advantage thereafter in forcing on the Revolu- 
tion, by intensifying the resistance of the towns in the 
colony, and by inducing the leaguing of the other 
colonies. In 1773 a party of citizens, disguised as 
Indians, and instigated by popular meetings, boarded 
some tea-ships in the harbor of Boston, and, to prevent 
the landing of their taxable cargoes, threw thera into 
the sea, — an act known in history as the " Boston tea- 
party." Parliament in retaliation closed the port of 
Boston, — a proceeding which only aroused more bitter 
feeling in the country towns, and enlisted the sympathy 
of the other colonies. The governorship was now 
given to Gen. Thomas Gage, who commanded the 
troops which had been sent to Boston. Everything 
foreboded an outbreak. Most of the families of the 
highest social position were averse to extreme meas- 
ures, and a large number were not won over and 
became expatriated Loyalists. The popular agitators, 
at whose head was Samuel Adams, — with whom John 
Hancock, an opulent merchant, and one of the few of 
the richer people who deserted the Crown, leagued 
himself, — forced on the movement, which became war 
in April, 1775, when Gage sent an expedition to Con- 
cord and Lexington to destroy military stores accumu- 



MASSACHUSETTS. 27 

lated by the Patriots. This detachment, commanded 
by Lord Percy, was assaulted, and returned with heavy 
loss. The country towns now poured in their militia 
to Cambridge, opposite Boston ; troops came from 
neighboring colonies, and a Massachusetts general was 
jilaced in command of the irregular force, which with 
superior numbers, at once shut the royal army up in 
Boston. An attempt of the provincials to seize a com- 
manding hill in Charlestown brought on the battle of 
Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775), in which the provincials 
were driven from the ground, although they lost much 
less heavily than the royal troops. Washington, chosen 
by the Continental Congress to command the army, 
arrived in Cambridge in July, 1775, and, stretching his 
lines around Boston, forced its evacuation in March, 
1776. The State was not again the scene of any con- 
flict during the war. Generals Knox and Lincoln were 
the most distinguished oflicers contributed by the State 
to the Revolutionary army. Out of an assessment at 
one time upon the States of $5,000,000 for the expenses 
of the war, Massachusetts was charged with $820,000, 
the next highest being $800,000 for Virginia. Of the 
231,791 troops sent by all the colonies into the field, 
reckoning by annual terms, Massachusetts sent 67,907, 
the next highest being 31,939 from Connecticut, Vir- 
ginia only furnishing 26,678. 

After the outbreak of the war a provisional govern- 
ment was in power till a constitution was adopted in 
1780, when John Hancock became the first governor. 
His most eminent successors have been Samuel Adams 
(1794-97), Elbridge Gerry (1810-12), Edward Everett 
(1836-40), and John A. Andrew (1861-66). Governor 
Bowdoin in 1786 put down an insurrection known as 
Shays's Rebellion. The Federal Constitution was ac- 
cepted by Massachusetts by a small majority, and its 
rejection was at one time imminent. But Massachu- 
setts became a strong Federal State, and suffered heav- 
ily under the Embargo Act of 1807, which was laid in 
the interests of the Democratic party. The sentiment 
of the State was also against the war with England in 



28 MASSACHUSETTS. 

1812-14; but much of the naval success of the war 
was due to Massachusetts sailors. In an apportionment 
of troops at the time, out of 100,000, Massachusetts was 
to furnish 10,000; Pennsylvania with 14,000, New 
York 13,500, and Virginia 12,000, now exceeding her 
quota. 

During the interval till the outbreak of the Civil 
War of 1801, Massachusetts was foremost in political 
change or ])rogress. She opposed the policy which 
led to the Mexican War; but the State sent one regi- 
ment (1057 men) into the field, under the command 
of Caleb Gushing. The Liberty party, forerunner of 
the Freesoil and Republican parties, arose among her 
people, led on by such men as William Lloyd Garrison 
and Wendell PhiUips. The Federal domination had 
been succeeded by the Whig rule in the State, and 
when its greatest exponent, Daniel Webster, died in 
1852, the Freesoil party was gathering force, and after 
an interval became the Republican party, with new 
affiliations, which drew off a majority of the old Whig 
party. This last political organization expired under the 
operation, — as it lost also its minority by their joining 
the Democratic ranks. Charles Sumner became the 
most eminent exponent of the new party, and he be- 
came the State's senator in the Federal Congress. The 
feelings which grew up and the movements that were 
fostered, till they rendered the Civil War inevitable, 
received something of the same impulse from Massa- 
chusetts which she had given a century before to the 
feelings and movements forerunning the Revolution. 
When the war broke, it was her troops who first re- 
ceived hostile fire in Baltimore, and, turning their 
mechanical training to account, opened the obstructed 
railroad to Washington. In the war which was thus 
begun, she built, equipped and manned many vessels 
for the Federal navy, but during the early years of the 
conflict she was not allowed any credit for these sailors 
on her quota of men ; and when allowance was finally 
made in 1864, she showed a record of 22,360 men who 
had since 1861 enlisted in the navy. In 1862, out of 



MASSACHUSETTS. '29 

300,000 men called for, Massachusetts was required to 
furnish 15,000. During the war all but twelve small 
towns furnished troops in excess of what was called 
for, the excess throughout the State amounting in all 
to over 15,000 men, while the total recruits to the 
Federal army were 159,165 men, of which less than 
1,200 were raised by draft. The State, as such, and 
the towns spent $42,605,517.19 in the war; and pri- 
vate contributions of citizens are reckoned in addition 
at about $9,000,000. This does not include the aid to 
families of soldiers, paid then and later by the State. 

Since the close of the war the State has remained 
generally steadfast in adherence to the principles of 
the Republican party, and has continued to develop 
its resources. Navigation, wliich was formerly the 
distinctive feature of its business prosperity, has, under 
the pressure of laws and circumstances, given place to 
manufactures, and the dcAcloping of carrying facilities 
on the land rather than on the sea. 



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